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Pallone: E&C Must Conduct Oversight of EPA Grants

January 9, 2018

Washington, D.C. – Energy and Commerce Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) released the following statement today in response to a news report from E&E News regarding EPA's decision to cut funding to the Bay Journal, a newspaper focused on the Chesapeake Bay:

"This report shows that EPA is continuing its outrageous assault on the environment and the press by playing politics with taxpayer-financed grants.

"Last September, I joined other Democratic Committee leaders in voicing concerns about the politicization of EPA's grants program. In a November response, EPA assured us that the Agency's new political grant review process ‘has not slowed or changed EPA's grant activity in any significant way.'

"The cancellation of funding for the Bay Journal suggests that EPA has, in fact, politicized grants at the expense of science, public health, and the environment, contrary to its official response. I'm extremely concerned that EPA grant decisions are now ideologically driven, particularly in light of the Deputy Associate Administrator reportedly stating to career officials that ‘the American people have major concerns with newspapers and the media.' The Energy and Commerce Committee must continue to exercise its oversight authority by holding hearings to address this critically important issue."

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